MelandMoragsjournal

Extra posting

2010-04-21T05:17:00.000-07:00

Good news! The European airports are now open and airlines plan to work through their backlog.. That was not a major concern to us since we have two weeks before we fly out but there is a great sense of relief on the ship. We are making an unscheduled stop in Cherbourg, France, to let passengers off who are going to the continent and are still scheduled to arrive on time in Southampton. Since we have never been to the French coast, it will be nice to see Cherbourg. We, of course, won't be allowed off the ship but the port call there comes during our dinner hour anyway. There are many people who still don't know what they are going to do. They don't know if they will be on their scheduled flights or not. Many are trying to get on the Queen Mary but they are full and there is a long wait list. It should all be sorted out by the time we are to go home. It makes us glad we are going up to Scotland for a few days.

Just thought you might be interested in this bit of news. See all of you soon.

Rome

2010-04-18T03:33:00.000-07:00

Saturday, 17 April found us in Italy at a port called Civitavechia. We chose not to take one of the ships' tours and set off on our own with two other couples by train into Rome. It was much cheaper and we could do what we wanted and choose our own sights to see. It was much nicer. The train was efficient, fast, and cheap. It was lovely passing through the countryside and seeing all the wild flowers. We had never been to Rome before so it was all new to us. What surprised Morag was that central Rome was so small; the traffic was not as busy as she expected and it was cleaner than anticipated. We found it was fairly easy to get around. We were surprised to find that the train fare was cheaper than an ice-cream. We got a hop-on, hop-off tour bus with the two couples (one English, one German). The unfortunate thing about only having a few hours there is that while you get a good overall picture of things you don't get a chance to really see a lot. However, it was very nice to be there.

After our tour we took ca walk and loved seeing the Trevia Fountain and the Spanish Steps but they were very crowded with tourists so the view of each was fairly obstructed. We went from the Steps down a side street and had pizza at a sidewalk restaurant with traffic passing by as we ate. We enjoyed our lunch and then decided to walk back to the train station. That was enjoyable looking at the shops and where people lived, etcetera. The German lady became quite tired so we wound up hopping back on the bus for about five minutes back to the train station. Something good we learned from Margrit, the German lady, when buying coffee, if you decide to stand it is one Euro while if you sit down it costs 3.50. A very good thing to know.

We barely made it back to the train because it was a long walk from the station entrance to our track. We had about 30 seconds to spare before the train took off. By the time we returned to Civitavechia, it was pleasant and warm so we sat at a roadside cafe and had ice-cream. We returned to the ship quite tired and we think we'll enjoy the four days at sea on our way to Southampton.

We can tell the difference in temperature since coming into the Mediterranean. The two times we have been on land in Europe it has been warm but with a good breeze. We did enjoy seeing the spring blossoms and the flowers. The talk on the ship right now is about the volcano erupting. Those people who had airline reservations are a bit anxious to see if they will be able to get out. Some are transferring to the Queen Mary and they will be okay. Others are hoping that there will be some cancellations on the QM so they can get back to the states that way. Others on the ship got off in Rome and they expect to be camped out at the airport for several days. We are fairly certain that all this will be taken care of by the time we are due to return to the U.S. on 5 May. The next four days we will be at sea and if anything exciting comes up to tell you we will make another posting, but if not there will be few postings from Britain because we will be busy visiting family, etcetera. Will see most of you soon.

Athens

2010-04-18T03:32:00.000-07:00

If it's Thursday, 14 April, it must be Athens. We awoke to a chilly day and we can tell we're back in Europe. But as the day wore on it was a very pleasant 74 degrees. We can also tell we're back in Europe because public transportation in Athens was on strike, which meant we couldn't get a bus, taxi or train into the city. The ship docked about five miles out in the port city of Piraeus. We took a tour called "Athens on your own," which meant the ship provided a bus into town for us and dropped us off near the Parliament building and came back and picked us up about four hours later. We had been in Athens before, six years ago, and we didn't think the ruins would have changed so we decided just to use the time walking around town. It was extremely pleasant. We went with another couple from our table and we just wandered along the streets, looked in the shops, had a cup of coffee and generally just enjoyed the day. Of course, par for the course, we went to an expensive coffee shop and the electricity wasn't working so we had a cold cup of expensive coffee. Naturally we had to pay the full price despite the fact that it was cold. As you all know, Greece is broke and it was evident that they had cut the landscaping budget because the park areas were filled with weeds everywhere. We do think that Athens is cleaner than it used to be and we just felt that we had a very pleasant day here. We got back to the ship about 2:30, went to lunch by the pool, then tried to sit outside but there was a cold breeze so we didn't stay outside very long. We came inside and played a game of Scrabble. And so that's how it goes. We only have one more week on the ship and we have mixed emotions about leaving here. We are beginning to know some of the people and have contact with several couples but it will be nice to be home. We have one more stop before we reach England and that is Rome on Saturday.

So we'll say so long for now and will write one more time from "The Eternal City."

Suez Canal Transit

2010-04-14T12:57:00.001-07:00

On Tuesday 12 April all those who were going on land tours of the pyramids or to Cairo were dropped off the ship very early in the morning at Suez before we entered the Suez Canal. Those of us who remained on board were privileged to watch events as the ship transited the Canal. As with the Panama Canal back in January, this was a long but interesting day. Ships have to transit the Suez Canal in convoy since there are just two places where they can meet and pass each other in the process. There is one convoy going north and two going south every day. In our (northbound) convoy there were 15 ships. In places the canal is too shallow and the banks cannot take the stress of two ships passing each other. The wave pressure would erode the banks too much.

The transit takes about twelve hours as the ship can only travel about at about eight knots so it will not create too much of a wake. It was a sunny but breezy day with a chilly wind so we sat in the lounge above the bridge and had a front-row seat for the transit. It was like being on the Nile river, a flat stream going through very arid land. Sometimes we came across some greenery that looked like small rice fields and a few villages and towns on either side of the canal. We were amazed at the discarded remains of war material; rusted pontoons, pipes, etc, left from previous wars. It was a really pleasant day just watching everything and thinking that what we had read about the Suez Canal in the history books we were now seeing. We had good conversations (blethers) with all those who had come up to watch the proceedings.

When we came to the end of the trip at Port Said they let us off the ship for about 45 minutes to look at the local vendors on the pier while we were waiting for the buses that had gone overland to come back. We didn't buy anything but it was nice to see the different merchandise they had in this part of Egypt.

And so a day at sea today and tomorrow morning we go to Athens. But there is to be a transit strike tomorrow so that forced us to change our travel plans. We will have about three hours in downtown Athens to look around and shop if we need to. More to follow after we set sail for Rome.

Sharm el Sheikh

2010-04-14T05:22:00.001-07:00

Monday 12 April and we were in Sharm el Sheikh in egypt on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula. Since the distance was so great we had elected to take a tour offered by the ship to Mount Sinai. We had an early start, 7:00 a.m. for a three-hour plus bus ride into the dessert, headed towards Mount Sinai, famous for Moses and Elijah. It was a very interesting drive for us and much more mountainous than we anticipated. We drove by rugged mountain ranges but the road was flat as we were in the valley. We drove past sand dunes, bedouin villages, and loads of checkpoints. Always at the checkpoints there were lots of men sitting and only one or two working. The big surprise to us was how dirty the dessert was, littered with trash. At the bedouin camps there were always goats, sheep and camels. We saw camels in various colors from light cream to a darker brown. The camels were skinny. We arrived at Mt. Sinai and it was difficult to see the whole mountain from where we were because of St. Catherine's monastery and the place was absolutely packed. There were nine buses from our ship plus other tour groups. You moved en masse through the monastery. Not quite sure what we saw, but it was interesting. Of course they have the "bush that burned" and "Jethro's Well where Moses met his future wife." It was interesting to us and we loved being there. A German lady had climbed up a small rocky hill opposite the monastery to take a photo of the mountain. She slipped on loose gravel and broke her leg. Today she is sporting a cast and rides in a wheel chair around the ship. We weren't there for very long because the place closed at 12:15 so we started back. We stopped at a Hilton hotel for lunch. We were looking forward to some good Arabic food but what they served was more western, institutional food and was not very good. After lunch we drove directly back to the ship arriving about 1/2 hour before we set sail. We actually didn't get into Sharm el Sheikh. Some from the ship said it was magnificent while others thought it was dirty and shabby. The ones who went snorkeling or on the glass-bottom boat thought it was marvelous. More later about the Suez Canal.

Jordan

2010-04-13T13:52:00.000-07:00

Sunday, 11 April, found us in Aqaba, Jordan on the Red Sea. There is not much to write about in Aqaba. We took the shuttle bus from the ship into the middle of the town. We walked around for a couple of hours, went into a few shops, but there is not a whole lot to report. it is a typical Arab town with sidewalks that are never completely finished with a lot of trash on the streets (but not the worst we have ever seen). It looks like they would like to increase tourism because there is a lot of building going on and lots of landscaping work along with it. The boat had 28 buses going to Petra on tour, that was approximately 1400 people. When we returned to the ship after our trip around Aqaba it was like a ghost town with hardly anyone on board. The weather was good, hot but not too hot. The other thing to do here was to go SCUBA diving -- what are the chances -- or take a ride on a glass-bottom boat and we had already done this last year in Elat, Israel, which is next door and easily visible from the ship.

Sorry this is a dull note but nothing exciting happened and we had a very uneventful day. Having said all that, we did have an enjoyable, relaxing time looking around for a couple of hours before we got the bus back. Next stop, Sharm el Sheikh where we will get a bus to go to visit Mount Sinai.

Special update

2010-04-09T01:33:00.000-07:00

Hi, This is Morag and it is a quick update but while it applies mostly for Georgie in Scotland, it will also be interesting to the rest of you and I only have time to write one note as we are meeting two Scottish christian couples for lunch. This morning Mel and I were eating breakfast and were about to finish and then go to a lecture when I noticed a couple taking a table opposite us, he left to get the food and she sat alone. As I watched her I thought that she looked like someone I knew years ago but could not remember the name,then it came to me and I decided to ask her if her name was Dorothy. Up I got from the table and approached her then asked the question to which she said Yes… I told her my name and she remembered me especially when I mentioned Georgie's name,then she asked me about Mel. This is Dorothy Syme, Georgie's bridesmaid so I reckon it has been 43 years since I last saw her. We spoke literally for a moment as I had to leave but we will meet for tea this afternoon and should get caught up with each other. What a small world… More to follow. Morag.

Tuesday, April 8th

2010-04-08T05:02:00.000-07:00

Salalah (Oman) on April 7th. What we forgot to mention while we were in Dubai is that our ship's anchorage was right next to the old QE2 vessel and QE looked very small compared to the Victoria. Dubai is going through hard times financially because they are bankrupt so the ship is lying at anchorage idle. They have a crew of about 40 people looking after her until they are able to get enough money together to finish the refurbishing of it. So we were at sea on April 6th and Mel was confined to the stateroom. We arrived on the 7th at Salalah and it was not as nice as Muskat. Mel was confined to the cabin by doctor's orders and Morag went with three other people to hire a taxi and take a tour of Salalah. It's quite a nice place but a bit dusty as it is in the dessert. But what they saw was the Sultan's luxurious palace, and the fields where he keeps his horses and camels. Then we drove along the coast and saw fishermen bringing in thousands of sardines. From there we drove to the ruins of the Queen of Sheba's palace. Rather interesting. From there the driver took us to the frankincense souk (Market). There the whole place smelled of burning incense. After that we went to Job's tomb. Some of you might be interested to know that Job was related to Mohammed!!!!! To prove it, they showed the family tree. On the way to Job's tomb it was a very windy road and we had to go slow because there were lots of camels on the street. We saw huge ones, baby ones, mommy ones. We had never seen so many. One of the women loved camels and couldn't believe her good fortune to see so many at one time.. On the highway just before we started to climb the mountain we saw these kiosks and they were selling camel meat with the meat hanging out in the heat of the desert and it didn't look too appetizing: it's good the Bible forbids eating camel meat.

The driver was muslim, a young man in his mid thirties. He has two wives and four children. He thinks it's a good thing for a man to have two wives and in fact he wants to have four. If he wanted a fifth one he'd have to get rid of one of the four, so we asked what would happen to the children. He said she would have to leave and the kids would stay behind because they are his. Fortunately for him he didn't understand too much English because we really wanted to tell him a thing or two. He carries two cell phones, one for each wife. What can we say to that! We haven't a clue.

So now we are coming up to the Gulf of Aqaba and we have three days at sea before we get to the city of Aqaba. We will write more after our day ashore there.

Love

M&Ms

Dub ai

2010-04-08T03:48:00.001-07:00

April 4 (Easter Sunday) and 5 found us in Dubai. We were gob smacked because we thought it would be over the top in glitz, but to our astonishment we found it attractive. It was funny to be in a city that wasn't there 40 years ago. It is well laid out with very wide streets, landscaped medians and houses that are either the color of sand, white or cream. The houses looked like sand castles at the beach and even the apartment buildings looked like grand, elaborate sand castles. Even the mosques are all new as well and quite pleasing to the eye. We walked on the pure white beach and put our feet in the turquoise waters but trust us, the beach was not nearly as clean as the one at Tower Shores. The hotels were a bit over the top, so luxurious: one hotel only had suites and each one costing at least 2500 dollars per night and one wall was part of an aquarium that ran throughout the hotel. We went to the shopping mall that had the ski slope in it. It was quite amazing to us to see people skiing in the middle of the dessert. Again the malls were a bit over the top with hallways wide enough for two cars to pass and all the stores were designer stores like Versacci, Chanel, or Saks Fifth Avenue. So we didn't stay long there. The first day, Easter Sunday, after we had gone to church at 8:00 in the morning, a half-hour service, we went out with another couple and got a taxi between us. The driver took us around for 3 1/2 hours and showed us all the buildings, tall skyscrapers, etc. The first place he took us to was a designer mall where they sold carpets, furniture and other fru fru. The first thing we saw was a hand-made silk rug with jewels in it and then a dining room set, inlaid, made from camel bone. Obviously out of our price range. We came back and had lunch on the ship and then went out again. Actually every taxi we took (four all together) the driver was either Indian or Pakistani and they told us they work seven days a week for 18 months and then they go home for two months to see their family and come back again. The rents are so expensive here that they have a room in a hotel where ten of them live together. This grand place has been built on the backs of "slave" labor. It is a strange place.

We went to the gold market (of course we didn't buy gold) but someone at our table bought an 11-carat diamond tennis bracelet. So between Sunday and Monday we rode in four taxis, two arbas (water taxis made in India of heavy wood but pretty basic and not too comfortable) and one shuttle bus from the ship to town. We didn't stay in town too long the second day because Mel got sick with fever and diarrhea and was confined to bed. Probably the most exciting thing going on at the moment is that we are under tighter security arrangements with razor wire affixed to the stern of the ship, fire nozzles pointing downward along the sides should pirates come and the ship is under darkened conditions at night, no external lights and we are not allowed on balconies or outer decks after dark. We've had a drill to tell us what to do, to go to inside corridors in the event of attack. But they tell us no ship this size has ever been taken because of her height and speed but the preparations do cause a bit of excitement among the gray hairs here.

Mel was sick for a few days, confined to the stateroom and hazmat people came in and cleaned the room twice a day. While I am not back to full strength yet, I am doing much better and no longer confined to the cabin.

Muskat

2010-04-03T07:38:00.001-07:00

What can we say about Muskat? We were very pleasantly surprised at what we saw but I couldn't actually tell you what we expected. Our experiences in Middle Eastern countries is that they are extremely dirty with a lot of men sitting around doing nothing except drinking coffee or whatever. Muskat does not fit that description. The city is modern, absolutely spotless and clean, efficient, traffic moved well and with a modern system of roadways including of motorway/interstate type. We booked a tour to take us to Niswa, the ancient capital city of Oman. It was a two-hour journey through rugged desert with very high mountains, some as high as the alps in Germany but very arid. When we arrived in Niswa the fort was extensive and looked like a huge sand castle, smooth, all the same color, sand colored, and slits in the walls like a sand castle with a beautiful city gate and city wall made of the same type of stone. You could have survived inside the fort in days gone bye because there were shops inside the walls and it had a well for water. Most of the men in the city and the countryside were dressed in their long white flowing robes, very smart. We saw no women at all in the shops or in the fortress. The bus driver and tour guide were also dressed in these white outfits.

After we went through the fortress we browsed around the local souq a few minutes, nothing spectacular there and everything was closing for the afternoon. They would reopen at four. They close every day for three hours in the heat of the day and it was hot, about 105 degrees or so. Not as bad as India because the AC worked on the bus and the humidity was much lower. From the fortress we drove to a local hotel for lunch. We sat at a table with two other couples we didn't know. We introduced ourselves to one couple at the table by saying, "My name is Mel and this is my wife Morag." The gentleman responded, "My name is Joe and this is my wife Morag." Would you believe it! Our mouths dropped open. What are the odds of that happening? Two Morags at the dinner table just by chance. In fact that has never happened in Morag's lifetime before this.

On our return trip to Muscat there didn't seem to be any slums in this town and all the buildings were painted white, Arab architecture but looked quite nice. Furthermore everything seems to have been built in the last 40 years and it shows. So, it was a very pleasant day with many surprises for us. We'll let you know what we think of Dubai tomorrow.

IndiA

2010-04-01T23:23:00.001-07:00

We made two stops in India. Our first port was Cochin or Kochi as the locals call and it has an interesting history. According to church historians the apostle Thomas brought Christianity to India and it was at Cochin that he landed when he first came to the subcontinent and the Assyrian Christians trace their roots back to him There still remains a small remnant of the Christian population in India today. In fact we visited a church what was once Roman Catholic, then Orthodox (Assyrian) before it became Church of England. The original grave of Vasco Da Gama was there. His grandson claimed the body and removed it to Lisbon. This was one of the highlights of our stay in a very hot muggy city. We also visited the royal palace known as the Dutch Palace and another museum. Neither of them was very remarkable to us as you can tell because I can't even remember the name of the second one. I do remember that neither was air conditioned and in order to reach the museum in the Dutch Palace we had to go up a steep, outside stair case and once inside it was very hot and crowded. We didn't linger too long in this place. We went shopping in a place called Jew Town, the local Jewish enclave. It was once quite large but now the population was down to ten, five couples. There is a synagogue but because our stop was on a Jewish holiday we couldn't go in. The population had dwindled because of migration to Israel by the younger set and the death of the older ones. Our day was somewhat of a disappointment to us because of the heat, the fact that our bus had no air-conditioning or PA system and was old and rickety with squeaky brakes, but a very loud horn. Our guide, while nice and knowledgeable, was very difficult to hear because of the lack of a functioning speaker system and he was frequently blocked out by the bus horn. It seemed like the traffic rule was the one with the loudest horn had the right of way. In India as in Thailand there are open air taxis with two-stroke engines and they are also known as Tuk-Tuks. One of them even has a sign on the back that said "Open Air Conditioned." I suppose the thought was supposed to make you feel cool. We saw goats and a cow on the street and our impression of Cochin was dirty, untidy, buildings in disrepair, but as far as the people was concerned they had smiles on their faces and were very polite to us. We returned to the ship via boat after a refreshment stop at a fairly nice hotel. Refreshment consisted of a cold (or hot) drink and a couple of tasty cookies. The boat dropped us off very near to the ship and we were glad to be home on board MV Queen Victoria.

Mumbai, according to our destination lecturer on the ship, is the second largest city in the world, population wise, second only to Shanghai. In the morning we had planned to take a taxi to a local market to do some shopping but didn't seem to be able to make a suitable arrangement with the taxi drivers. They all wanted to take us to a souvenir shop or jewelry store and we wanted to go to a local market. Since this failed we did some looking around in the cruise-ship terminal then went back on board the ship for a while before our afternoon tour. Our excursion in the afternoon took us for a panoramic view of Mumbai, the harbor, and some other interesting sites. We did get one photo stop at the Gateway to India, a monument on the harbor and across the street from the Taj Mahal Hotel, which was the one hit by terrorists last year. You could still see scaffolding where they were repairing the damage done by the al Qaeda attack. We drove through some interesting places, some very narrow streets, and past some slums which were, to me, the poorest looking place I have ever seen. If you have seen the movie "Slum Dog Millionaire" you will have an idea what I mean. They showed the move on the ship a couple of days before Mumbai and Mel could only take about 10 minutes of it. Parts of the city were lovely with beautiful colonial buildings while much of it was busy, dirty, full of trash and lots of street markets. We would like to return because it did have something about it that challenges and we found interesting. The British must have spent their time building railways and train stations because everywhere we have been lately there has been a "Victoria Station," which were the prettiest buildings in town. We stopped at a local hotel for a light lunch and a dance exhibition. It was okay but we think it would have been better to have seem more of the city. After this stop we came straight back to the ship.

In our daily bulletin there was an announcement that after research in an old warehouse in Liverpool the Cunard company had found the original funnel color for Cunard ships. So at noon that day they were going to change the color of the funnel on this ship and the Queen Mary 2 so we should take photos of the old and the new to show the contrast. So when we came home we saw the funnel and remarked to each other that we rather liked the color. And then we were told last night in the theater that this was an April Fool's joke. They really had us and a few others.

This concludes our India adventure for this voyage. We are now en route to Muscat, Oman tomorrow. We will be in touch again after our stop there.

Phuket Island

2010-03-27T18:45:00.000-07:00

Phuket was not our favorite stop. We anchored offshore and had to take tenders in. There were seventeen sections to the pontoon pier to which the tenders took us since there was no dock at the town where we were dropped off. We hired a tuk-tuk taxi to take us to Phuket town which was about 15 kilometers from the pier. A tuk-tuk is a small vehicle powered by a two-stroke engine and gets its name from the sound it makes. The ones in Bangkok are three-wheelers but on Phuket Island they were four-wheeled like very small pickup trucks. We wanted to ride the tuk-tuk because of the novelty but it was very hot in the back where we sat as well as uncomfortable sitting there, so we don't think we would try that again. It was cheap however and worth the chance to try it.

We wanted to go to a pharmacy to buy some bandages for Mel's toe so our first stop was there then we were taken to a jewelry shop, and this even after we had made it clear to the driver/guide that we had no interest in jewelry. After we refused to go into the shop the driver took us to a market to look around. This was a market where locals shopped so there was not a lot of interest to us but prices were very cheap with no bargaining.

We spend about a half hour there and then set out back for the ship. We were dropped off near to the pier and took about an hour to look around. The place was all beach, very crowed and not too clean. We passed a hair-dressing salon and as Mel needed a haircut we stopped in to take care of that. Morag came with me and sat waiting. The man who ran the shop asked Morag her age. This must be the custom here as this is the second time someone has asked Morag her age. Morag asked the shop owner what he thought her age was. After much thought he and his friend agreed it should be 59 or 60. Anyway, this is a good place for your ego. But he replied that people our age in his country don't go any where and that Morag looked very strong.

We made our way back to the pier and to the tenders for our ride back to the ship. All in all we spent about six hours ashore. We're glad to have three days on the ship before going ashore again. One lady at our table said it was good to have a three-day weekend to rest up. We thought that was an appropriate comment.

Next stop, India!

Singapore and Malaysia

2010-03-25T08:36:00.000-07:00

We spent a marvelous day yesterday with our nephew Larry and his sweet wife Doreen in Singapore. They picked us up where the shuttle dropped us off in town at the harbor front and we went to the Botanical Gardens and walked through the Orchid Garden. We saw orchids of every shape, color, size, just hundreds of them. It was very beautiful and interesting: it was also extremely hot and humid; Singapore is only 90 miles north of the equator. Unfortunately Mel stubbed his toe in the garden and by the time he took his shoe off (thankfully he was wearing his Crocs) his toe was covered with blood. Fortunately Doreen had some Kleenex and we stuffed them around his toe. Larry drove us to a pharmacy and the assistant there was very helpful and showed us what we needed to buy and told us to go to a public bathroom to clean it up. As we were leaving the pharmacy she came running after us and said she would dress it. She did a great job and the toe is one messy piece of flesh. We are not sure it will heal properly but fortunately I am not in pain. Then Larry drove us around the city and showed us where they go to church, where the kids went to school, where the two of them work and pointed out some of the old colonial buildings. Afterwards they took us for lunch to a lovely country club, surprisingly large and beautifully kept with a championship golf course. We ate local (Singapore) food, which was delicious and not too spicy. After lunch we took a drive to where they live, saw their nice condominium and the grounds with several swimming pools. We had such a delightful time, especially since we had not seen Larry in over 40 years and had never met Doreen at all.

What a charming lady Doreen is. She made us feel so welcome and we had a kindred spirit with her. It was a nice time for catching up with events in Larry's life. We learned where their two boys are going to university in the U. S. and hopefully when they come to the U.S. to see their boys they will include us in their visit. On the way back to the ship we stopped in Chinatown, which seems strange for Singapore, says Larry, since the population is about 80 percent Chinese.

Well, what did we think of Singapore! It is a beautiful, clean city. Bushes and trees and flowers are everywhere and it is immaculate. Another Asian town with large skyscrapers and good roads. It's a heavily regulated place but it seems to work. Nothing looked to be in disrepair. There were electronic bulletins posted on many roads advising where parking was available, even down to the number of spaces. Larry said each parking space has a sensor that tells whether it is empty or occupied so the board changes instantly. Most (probably all) cars have transponders in them for collecting parking fees and road tolls. It seems like all the expressways are toll roads. We found out that before you can even buy a car you have to get a Certificate of Eligibility costing about 17,000 dollars and when you add the cost of a car it gets very expensive and the certificate is only good for ten years.

Our time was indeed too short and we were wishing we had more time with them. Thank you Doreen and Larry for showing us such a great day.

Today was Kuala Lampur in Malaysia. We picked up a taxi on the pier and drove into the city, which was about 40 miles away. Our driver took us there drove us around for a while and brought us back. The interesting thing about the taxi was it was powered by natural gas and we had to stop fill up on the way back to the ship. He had to go under the hood to hook up and you could hear the gas running through the lines to the tank in the back of the car.

The driver was a very interesting man and extremely well read and up on current affairs. He spoke about the bank failures in Britain and the U.S. and politics and sports. He loves English soccer and his favorite team is Liverpool. He knew all the standings and how teams were doing. He was just a very kind and unusual man. We liked Kuala Lampur. It is smaller than other cities we have been in but it looks like wealth is coming to this country because there were nice suburbs being built and there were several large shopping malls. Again, the people were very friendly and nice. We drove around the town and tried to get up the twin towers so we could walk the air bridge that connects the two of them. Admission was free but we could not get a ticket until 4:15 in the afternoon. Since our ship left at 4:30 we didn't think we ought to wait. We went around some of the sights and wound up in a market in China Town. We spent about an hour looking around there and saw the police come into the market in vans and on foot. It looked like there was going to be a raid. Folks in the market started taking down merchandise that was hanging for some reason or other, we didn't understand why and we saw the police haul off one cart filled with goods. This was about the time we were leaving so we didn't ever get an idea why. So we returned and now we are en route to Phuket, Thailand, our third stop in as many days. In five days we actually had four ports. It's hard work going ashore every day in a different place. We are looking forward to three days at sea in a row on our way to India. Trust you are all well. More after the next stop. Love and God Bless all. Mel and Morag

Bangkok and Koh Samui

2010-03-22T19:09:00.000-07:00

Because we have not had a sea day in between you are going to have to suffer through two stops in one blog. Sunday, we docked at Laem Chabang, which is the big-ship port for Bangkok. We traveled two hours by bus through the countryside. It was extremely hot, over 100 degrees F with high humidity: in fact it was pretty exhausting doing sightseeing. We traveled through the old town and the new town of Bangkok and ended up at the royal palace. We weren't allowed inside but we could walk around the buildings and there was a large number of them to see with amazing architecture. There was tons of gold on the Buddhist shrines. Actually we walked by a gold building and Morag touched it and the surface was barely warm. On the other side the building it was cool to the touch. It amazed us that gold must not be a conductor of heat. After the palace they took us to an air-conditioned mall where we could have lunch and look around. Believe me the air conditioning felt good to us. We spent the next couple of hours inside the mall. We even ate lunch at MacDonalds or Macs Donald as our guide said it and it really tasted good. Speaking of businesses, 7-Eleven and KFC can be found all over Thailand. We didn't much like Bangkok. It was too hot, too busy, too humid, not too clean, and too many Buddhist shrines and temples. Having said that, all the people were kind and very polite to us. In fact, we have never encountered a rude person on the street or shop assistant in the places we have visited.

When we returned to the ship and went for dinner we had new table-mates. Since we have left Hong Kong we've only had one couple at the table with us. They are from New Jersey, near Philadelphia. Shall we say, to put it as nice as we can, we don't communicate on their level so it has been a little different. Last week we picked up a couple from England and he is one of the lecturers on the tour. He is extremely entertaining. In Bangkok we picked up a couple from New York who are business people so the conversation now at the table is very interesting and enthusiastic. In fact last night it was very noisy, with sometimes four conversations going on at once. So that was Bangkok.

Yesterday was spent at Koh Samui, one of the southern islands and a complete contrast from Bangkok. We loved it. It was a laid back, relaxing little island. We hired a car and driver for the day and he took us round the island. It really is a jungle island with nice beaches. Trees have had to be cleared to build the various towns around the shoreline. We saw spectacular coastlines, drove through some wee country towns (Morag's words). We saw some elephants and had an opportunity to ride one but chose not to. We saw water buffalo and some monkeys that were trained to climb palm trees and knock down the coconuts;. Our driver was named Joy and his name suited his personality. He took us entirely around the island and we ended up at Tesco, which we found extremely interesting. So we went into Tesco and bought some sodas and it was extremely nice.

On the way home Morag asked Joy how old he was. He replied, "26. How old are you?" To which Morag said, "71." And he said, "You are good to look." We took that as a compliment.

So, today is a rest day where we have to do some catching up and on to Singapore tomorrow. We will have another blog in a couple of days. So we sail on.

Vietnam is beautiful

2010-03-20T03:57:00.000-07:00

Because of our delay in Shanghai, Halong Bay, our stop for Hanoi, was cancelled. We were disappointed because people had told us that Hanoi was a good place to visit. So we ended up with five days at sea. Don't feel sorry for us because five days at sea was kind of fun. We got to read a lot, play table tennis, play scrabble, go to shows, lectures: there is so much to do, but all of it was relaxing. In fact, in all our life we have never had such a relaxing vacation. All our meals were cooked and our room cleaned for us every day. While it was sad to miss Hanoi, we were certainly not disappointed with Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). It was a complete mixture from poor to rich. Our tour guide thought it was great that everyone had a chance to work hard and make his own way in the city. Our ship docked at Phu My, about a two-hour drive from Saigon--I can't help calling it that--over some pretty rough roads and through some rather shabby looking settlements. When we actually got to Saigon we found a modern city with a lot of French influence in the older buildings but lots of modern, high-rise buildings as well. The French layout was very beautiful; wide boulevards with trees and landscaping and the buildings were French colonial with big verandas and shutters and were in good shape. Downtown Saigon is a very beautiful place with smart hotels, shops and restaurants. We liked the contrast of the buildings. We only got a little taste of it but what we saw we liked. There are 8 million people in this city with 4 million (at least) motorcycles and scooters. We didn't see much rhyme nor reason to the traffic pattern because we frequently saw motorbikes going the wrong way on the streets. There weren't any traffic lights but somehow or other the traffic moved with people weaving in and out. We thought the motorcycles and scooters were a good means of transportation and we didn't see one traffic jam because there weren't too may cars. The motorcycles don't take up as many parking spaces, either. You will wonder how they transport their groceries, luggage or whatever. No problem, they just put it on their scooters or motorcycles and off they go. Frequently we would see a mom, dad, and two kids on a scooter. One of our table mates saw two people plus and air conditioner on a scooter while another saw two washing machines on one scooter. So it seems you can move anything you want to on a scooter or motorbike. Our destination lecturer had a picture of two men on a motor scooter with a large pane of glass. It all amazed us.

We found a real mixture in the town. In some of the suburbs the houses didn't look too good; old and in bad need of repair while in others there were very lovely ones and apartment buildings being built in the city. Parts of the city reminded us a lot of the west bank in Israel with all the goods out on the sidewalk with dust from the road on top of the merchandise. One thing we did like was the old thatched cafes at the edge of town where you stopped for a cup of coffee and you could take a nap in a hammock in the shade of a tree. We thought this was very clever. These places are called "Hammock Cafes." Many Buddhist temples dot the landscape, as well.

The people were gentle and friendly. The city center was very clean but the suburbs were not so clean. We wish we could have spent a longer time so we could get to know the city better but we were very pleased to have visited here. We felt privileged to have had the opportunity to come but we didn't like the heat and humidity. It was in the low 90s with 80 percent plus humidity.

When I went up last night to see the ship leave the pier, I saw a man running along the wharf waving his arms and yelling as though he was supposed to be on board. In fact he was and we heard that three people were late returning and has missed the ship but the pilot boat brought them out when it came out to pick up the pilot. They would have had to jump from a moving boat on to the platform on board ship where the pilot disembarks. At least we now know for sure that they will leave you if you don't get back to the ship on time.

As you know, Morag's birthday was the 18th. Mel had flowers delivered to the stateroom and arranged for a cake to be delivered to the table. The waiters gathered around and sang "Happy Birthday" and we shared the cake. Morag says she had a really good day.

So now we sail on and tomorrow is our stop at Laem Chabang or however you spell it, our stop for Bangkok. More to follow.

Shanghai

2010-03-14T16:10:00.001-07:00

Here we sit in the harbor waiting clearance to leave Shanghai. We have been waiting since 7:00 last night, 22 hours ago. We're fogged in and the authorities say we can't leave. There is a big queue of ocean-going vessels waiting for permission to leave or enter the harbor. It is pouring rain outside so we can't sit on deck. It is not even a pretty harbor: it is a huge port with acres and acres of cars and more containers than you could imagine. Speaking of cars, we saw quite a few Buicks in Shanghai yesterday. There is an annual lottery for license plates in Shanghai and limited to 50,000 per year. (Morag heard 5,000, I heard 50,000.) They may go for as much as five thousand dollars (US) just for the plates. Shanghai residents have to have the plates before they can buy a car and the competition is fierce but they keep the plate the rest of their life. It can be put on any car.

Maybe by the time we finish this blog we will get permission to leave, but we are not counting on it. This will mean adjustment to ports of call but we haven't heard what yet. I think ports where passengers are scheduled to leave or come onto the ship are not negotiable so they will have to make ports like Bangkok and Singapore but intermediate ports can be skipped to keep the rest of the schedule.

Shanghai was the first port where we have had to show passports to enter and leave the ship and we were cautioned to be sure to have them with us at all times when ashore. There were Chinese immigration officials at the gangway when we left and returned to check passports. We had a long bus ride, about an hour, to downtown Shanghai and I don't know what we expected of it, probably a Soviet-style city with colorless, endless buildings; instead we found a modern, bustling, crowded but beautiful city with more skyscrapers of various shapes than we have seen in any other place including Manhattan. Another thing that surprised us was that the cars were mostly new, so unlike a Soviet place. Our guide told us that there was a sort of oneupmanship in designing skyscrapers to make them unusual and different. They certainly succeeded because there were lots of different shapes, sizes and colors. The Sheraton Hotel, for instance, had three skyscraper towers with no telling how many floors.

Our first stop was to go up what was once the tallest building in Shanghai and the ride up to the 88th floor observation deck took 45 seconds. The only way we could tell we were moving was that our ears popped. We were actually in the lower edge of a cloud so visibility was poor. Still it seemed strange to look down on tall buildings. Had we been able to see we would have seen where they are building what will be the new tallest building in Shanghai and second tallest manmade structure in the world but we could not see it for the mist. We had about 30 minutes to spend looking around before we went back down to our bus and then were taken to lunch in a very classy hotel. Our dining room was on the 14th floor and there was about 60 in our group and we were not the only ones dining in this place. There was another tour group also in the hotel and their dinner was served in the 12th floor dining room. That should give you an idea of how large this hotel was.

After lunch we went to some gardens in the old city. They were quite extensive and included unique trees, fishponds, fountains, sculptures and unusual rock formations. The place was absolutely packed and we had a difficult time keeping our tour guide in sight and keeping up. After going through the gardens we were taken to the Silk Museum and were allowed time to wander around and purchase silk items if we so intended. There were lots of dresses, scarves, blouses and bedding items. They were very beautiful and not very expensive. I think several from our group spent quite a bit of money there.

After the museum we went to a downtown shopping district where we were turned loose for a couple of hours. We actually only stayed for a few minutes and boarded the shuttle back to the ship because it was cold and windy and we didn't want to buy anything. We had an interesting day and were impressed by the cleanliness of the city and the way it was landscaped. There is an intricate network of elevated roadways and underneath they were well landscaped with greenery and gardens. Some of the elevated roadways had flower baskets hanging over the sides stretching for miles. For a city of over 25 million it was amazingly clean and the people seem very friendly to foreigners. We really enjoyed our day here. Morag was particularly impressed by the roadworks. The greenery consisted of neatly clipped hedges and it would be lovely in the spring when flowers were blooming. This was a worthwhile stop.

So we sat and waited for about 36 hours before we were finally allowed to sail. We pulled in the gangway just after 8:00 p.m. on Saturday evening and slipped our moorings at about 6:00 a.m. on Monday morning. Next stop is supposed to be Halong Bay, the stop for Hanoi but there will have to be some adjustment. So, until then.

Hong Kong

2010-03-11T23:54:00.000-08:00

Greetings from the East China Sea. "Who would'a thunk we'd 'ave ever been here. Today is overcast, dull, with a temperature in the low 60s. We see a lot of ship traffic passing us because we are on the main route between Singapore and Korea. Judging from the port in Hong Kong, there are many ships to come. We heard three stories about Hong Kong shipping: it is the biggest, the second biggest, and the third biggest port in the world but whatever it is, it was the biggest container port we have ever seen. We were in terminal four of at least six terminals and there were hundreds of cranes and containers as far as one could see. The port is in operation 24/7. The logistics of this port have to be mind boggling. There are streets upon streets of containers and the bus driver taking us into town got confused as to how to get out of the port. He had to turn around several times before we made it.

So, Hong Kong: We found it to be a fascinating city in a beautiful location with many islands and hills and great vegetation. We have never seen so many skyscrapers and thin, too. It's a wonder how they stand up. May Hong Kong never have an earthquake. They have done a wonderful job with the traffic, it is very heavy but moves well. Public transport is excellent with buses, trams, subways and ferries. There are lots of pedestrian walkways to take you over the streets so the traffic can flow more easily without pedestrian interference. To our amazement, such a large city was spotlessly clean. When the buses come into their terminal at the end of their run someone cleans them out with a broom. The subway aisle was as clean as a hospital corridor. You could not mistakenly wander onto the subway tracks because there was a glass barrier up to prevent any misadventures. When the train pulled into the station the doors of the glass barrier opened for passenger entry and exit. The first day, after having obtained some money at the bank and also after walking around in circles we finally got our bearings. We went up to the Peak, but couldn't see too well. There is a great view from the top but the day was too hazy for a good look. We were finally glad to find a Burger King so we could use their toilet and we had lunch there. We're sure that was not the smartest thing to do with all the nice restaurants around but we felt that was the right thing to do since we had used their facilities. We took a tour of the harbor on the Star Ferry and actually stayed in town long enough to see the lights of Hong Kong at night. We came home exhausted after walking for hours.

The next day we got up and got on the shuttle bus early because we were determined to go to Stanley Market. Stanley Market was an hours drive by bus from Central Hong Kong but located in a lovely bay. It was interesting for us to go around but we were hard pushed to spend the rest of our money because we didn't see anything that really struck our fancy. It was a nice lovely sunny day so the drive back on the bus was very pleasant. We retraced our steps and headed back to the ship because we had to leave at 3:00. Now we are at sea on a rest day and it's wonderful. We are getting caught up with things like Morag doing some ironing, going to the hairdresser, etcetera. We have been invited to the Chief Medical Officer's table for dinner tonight. That's about all the news. More from our next stop, Shanghai, tomorrow.

Kota Kinabalu

2010-03-09T03:06:00.001-08:00

B\It was hot and muggy Sunday when we stepped off the gangway onto the shore of Malaysia at Kota Kinabalu, the capital city of Saba State. The temperature was in the 90s and with high humidity, even worse that August in Maryland. Kota Kinabalu is on the island of Borneo and Malaysia is one of the three countries on Borneo, the third largest island in the world. The southern part of the Island is part of Indonesia and the Sultanate of Brunei is the third country. We had decided to go into the town on our own in the morning and take a tour in the afternoon. The ship's shuttle bus dropped us off in the center of town near to what is known as the Philippines Market or the Handicraft Market. We took a walk through the market just browsing. While it was called the handicraft market, there was mostly food for sale. We didn't stay long because the place smelled bad. We had been told there was a place called the Sunday Market and we actually set out there. We had heard that one could buy anything there and that turned out to be true. Sunday market was a street market and was probably about a quarter of a mile long. We found everything from puppies to electronic equipment as well as all kinds of foodstuffs.

We wondered around in the town for a couple of hours and then took the shuttle back to the ship for a quick bite of lunch before our scheduled tour. The bus was air conditioned which made our afternoon much more comfortable. We were taken out along the seashore to visit the sights. There is a building here that is circular in shape built around a central column with steel girders used to support the various floors. It is one of only a few such in the world. Then we drove to the local university, really quite impressive, and to various other sights. The road we were on was built on reclaimed land and we saw some remains of communities that actually consisted of houses built on stilts. We had heard of them but never seen them before. After which we drove to the local museum where we toured primitive huts. There was a man dressed as a warrior who demonstrated the use of a blow gun. As you probably know, the darts would have been tipped with poison and would have been fatal if someone were struck by one. The good thing about Borneo is that they actually gave up head-hunting in 1942, so our pretty little heads were safe. Head hunters had to be licensed by the government and one potential hunter went to apply for a license and was told that it was now illegal to do that so he said, "Okay, and went away never to hunt heads again.

This is no nanny state. Health and Human Services are non existent here. Pavements were uneven, the curbs were very high and they had open ditches for rain runoff right next to the sidewalk so there is no way an infirmed person could get about. Electrical chords were strung all over the market place. It was a disaster waiting to happen. However the new part of the town was pretty nice, already landscaped, and they have started putting up big hotels and beautifying the area so in a few years this will be a nice vacation spot. The only houses on stilts that are still occupied are in a slum area and there are plans to remove them and relocate the people.

Today was laundry day. It's always packed. Usually the people are griping but today was rather pleasant. People from the U.K. would be more interested in this story than others but we will include it. There was an Australian lady doing laundry alongside Morag. She said, "Where are you from?" Morag replied, "Originally from Scotland but I live in the United States."//"What part of Scotland?"//"Edinburgh."//"Oh, we used to live in Edinburgh. We lived there for three years."//"Why were you in Edinburgh?"//"My husband was studying orthopedic surgery."//"Very nice, and did you happen to go to any church while you were in Edinburgh?"//"Yes, we went to Charlotte Chapel."//"Oh, I went there. Who was the pastor."//Alan Redpath, and the Church Secretary was Mr. Urquhart." So, the long and the short of it is they were friendly with Fergus Brown and knew Nan Purvis and Ian Balfour really well. Isn't it a small world! Their names are Philip and Grace Lind. Maybe some of you know them. Now that was a pleasant exchange in the laundry room. We had to keep this short and sweet. It was a much longer con version that that. They also are on board to celebrate their 50th Wedding Anniversary.

We are on our way to Hong Kong and the seas are rough, gale-force winds and 4-6 meter swells. Tomorrow in Hong Kong is supposed to be cool and windy. We are here for 1 1/2 days. Will write more later.

Exmouth

2010-03-02T02:51:00.001-08:00

Greetings to all our friends in the Northern Hemisphere who are going through the winter from the sunny 110 degree heat of Western Australia. We have just set sail from Exmouth on a four-day trip to Borneo. We went ashore this morning on a tender because the ship couldn't get through the coral reef. We went into the town and the ships visitors doubled the population of Exmouth. The commercial part of the town consisted of a little square with a dozen shops, a couple of cafes and a grocery store (IGA). We did enjoy a good cup of coffee at one of the cafes because we don't get a good cup on the ship. The principle industry is fishing and the people on the ship from Perth rave about the good fish from here. There was nothing much that we could see or that caught our interest but we did spot some emus walking along the streets. It does appear they are planning growth in this town because they have planted trees and done some landscaping, we guess to make it more hospitable for tourists who seem to come here in the winter months because the climate is good. We think that if we came back in five years we probably would not recognize this place. We find Australia expensive; for example two cups of cappuccino cost us eleven dollars. There were tours in glass-bottomed boats to the coral reef to see the tropical fish but we didn't go because we had this in Israel in the gulf of Aqaba. There were also tours to the outback but it didn't appeal to us to go off trekking in a 4-wheel drive vehicle in 110 degree heat so we stayed local. We came back to the ship for a late lunch, getting back about one o'clock.

At lunchtime there was a French lady at the table who didn't speak much English. We found out she could speak German so we managed to converse with her using bits of three languages. We were trying to discuss the weather in the U.S. and the floods in France. Not sure that we fully understood each other but we got by. Then this afternoon we were playing table tennis bearing in mind we have not done that in 40 years, which means we spend most of our time picking up the ball off the floor than actually hitting it back and forth. A young Chinese boy with Downes Syndrome came along and was watching us so Morag asked if he would like to play. Mel willingly gave up his bat so the boy got to play with Morag. He was unrelenting and they played for about an hour and about halfway through he said to Morag very loudly, "I think you are far too old to be playing this game." The barmaid nearly dropped her tray laughing and other people sitting around were laughing out loud at what he said.

So that was our day today. We are on our way, next stop Kota Kinabalu in Borneo and an adventure with headhunters. So if you don't hear from us for a while you will know that the headhunters found us. Until then.

Fremantle and Perth

2010-03-01T02:37:00.001-08:00

Of all the places we have seen in Australia so far, Perth might take the prize. We docked at Fremantle, which is about 12 miles from Perth and got on a tour bus that was to take us to Perth so we could see the most interesting places. On the way we drove through suburbs with the Swan River to the right and the Indian Ocean to our left. Perth is a beautiful city, more laid back than Sydney, with many parks, wide streets and friendly people. There were a lot of skyscrapers and grand hotels,l It seems to be a wealthy city because of nearby mining for gold, copper, coal and iron ore. Since it was a Sunday the traffic was lighter and we moved quickly through the city. The city has a population of 1.2 million, very cosmopolitan with every nationality under the sun. When you consider the whole country has a population of about 24 million that's a lot of people in one place. It is said that the unemployment is very low in Perth. It was a very hot day, around 100 degrees but low humidity and there was a sea breeze so it was not unbearable. Basically we were driven around the sites and taken to parks where there were beautiful trees and good views of both the city and the river. Fremantle itself is a sort of country town but very nice, with lots of coffee bars. We think they must be into drinking coffee here because there were cafes everywhere and they were very crowded. There were many people on the streets and we thought this was unusual for a Sunday. They seemed to spend lots of time outdoors but this is understandable because the place is surrounded by beautiful, white beaches and turquoise water of the Indian Ocean, which we are seeing for the first time.

Instead of getting off in Fremantle to look around Morag decided she was too tired even to shop. She said she needs a buddy (read Carol) to go shopping with. Mel is not a bundle of laughs in the shopping arena.

So we were back in time to eat a late lunch on the ship. Again, as we pulled out of the harbor that evening people were lined up along the wharf, the dock and the breakwater to wave us off. There were a load of boats in the harbor also there to say goodbye and they exchanged whistle blows with the ship as we sailed out on our way to Exmouth. We saw the pilot boat come alongside the ship to take the pilot off. We don't stop. The boat matches speed with the ship and comes very close so the pilot can jump off the ship and onto the deck of the boat. Too scary for us but he made it. That's it for now as we sail towards Exmouth, our last stop in Australia.

We did get two new couples at our table last night, both from Australia and appear to be very nice. The two women were not born in Australia: one was born in Macedonia (Greece) and the other in Denmark. Until after Exmouth….

Albany

2010-02-27T06:59:00.001-08:00

Today was spent in Albany in southern West Australia. It was a bright, sunny day but quite windy. We were in line to get the shuttle bus to town when a German couple asked us to share a taxi and driver with them and take a drive around the area. We got a taxi with a driver named Terry. He was a nice Australian gentleman, quite personable, and he drove us along the coastline to where we saw the last whaling station that closed in 1977. We saw a whaling ship, pretty small and narrow, a natural bridge and a lot of granite rocks along the cliff shore. There were pure white beaches with turquoise water: what could look better! The German man wanted to taste some fresh oysters so the driver took us to an oyster place where the boat had just brought in some fresh ones. He said they tasted good. They looked disgusting to us. Another site we saw was a wind farm and our driver said it supplied 90 percent of Albany's electricity. There is always plenty of wind coming up from the Antarctic to provide power for the generators. We walked around town, through a little market, and then came back to the ship. We had to be back by 1:30 because the ship was to sail at 2:00. Albany seems to be just a small country town. The people seem to be laid back. As we driving through the country we passed a farmyard where there was a rusty old steam-driven tractor and a couple of old, rusty, decayed cars. The coastline is so beautiful that the town is spread out because the people want to enjoy the view of the ocean. Morag says she keeps trying to think of something funny to say but the ship is filled with old people (older than we) and nothing much funny goes on. One interesting thing though was that one man was celebrating his 100th birthday on the ship and he was invited up to the bridge and allowed to blow the ship's whistle. He blew it for a long blast, too.

The last two days at lunch we sat beside Scots. Yesterday it was a couple from Fife. During the course of the conversation it turned out that the wife had gone to school with Morag's cousin Dakers Fleming. We wouldn't know him if we saw him. Today we sat with a couple from Aberdeen. He was a medical doctor with a specialty in rheumatics. We asked him if he knew Verner Wright and it tuns out he did. So while nothing too funny is happening, it's interesting that you bump into people the other side of the world who know people that we know.

Last night we went to the Lido for dinner. It was to be oriental and we we had an enjoyable evening there. That's all for now. We are steaming at full speed for Fremantle, which is the port for Perth. More from there.

Adelaide

2010-02-25T00:25:00.000-08:00

We had a lovely, sunny, warm day with no humidity, just nice to be out in it. The city is the driest, southernmost capital on the driest continent in the world according to the driver of our coach as we headed into Adelaide. The port of Adelaide is probably 20 miles from the city so it took about 40 minutes to get into town. At the port we had to run the gauntlet of opal dealers just to get outside to where the buses were waiting. Our driver gave us a running commentary of all the attractions as we made our way into the main part of town. For those of you who are in Edinburgh you can feel quite comforted that Adelaide is bringing back trams. It was a very nice city, wide streets, well planned with nice parks but it was very dry and the grass was brown in most areas. The people were very helpful like we have seen in other Australian cities. Morag was struck with the fact that despite the hot climate the business men were dressed in long-sleeved shirts with ties. While it was very nice, Adelaide was not our favorite city. We walked around the center, then even further to the city market, took a bus ride around the main district, all very nice and then we came home. When we sailed away there was a lot of people waiting to wave goodbye to us. This was the first time Queen Victoria had been to Adelaide and it made the local television news. At 7:00 that evening we went to a classical piano concert by an internationally known musician from Shanghai who played some of his own works and a couple of pieces by Chopin. His name is Tian but I am not sure of his complete name. Now we have two days at sea before we stop at Albany in West Australia. The seas are calm but it's a bit breezy making it cool on deck. More to come after Albany.

Melbourne

2010-02-22T20:16:00.000-08:00

Melbourne has proved to be another interesting city. It was a mixture of old and new: extremely modern buildings and skyscrapers, then there were old cottages and mansions that were put up by the first settlers. In fact, the old governors cottage had been fabricated in England and sent out here board by board, so it looked out of place in this city. The Information Center was the best we had ever seen, extremely helpful people who were dressed in red and stationed throughout the city to help you. The only other place we have ever seen anything like that was in Helsinki. From the moment we got off the ship we found the people to be friendly, hospitable, and proud of their city. We took a short bus ride into the heart of the city where we got on a tram that ran in a circular route around the center. It was old, rickety and crowded with locals who hopped on and off as we traveled around. There was a commentary over the PA system but the din from people on the car was so loud we had difficulty hearing what the guide was saying. Did I forget to mention the tram ride was free.

People on the tram were friendly and willing to talk to you about their hometown. The circular route took you to the most interesting parts of the city including their stadium, shopping precincts, government buildings and a couple of yacht basins. We did get off the tram at one point and went into a big shopping mall. We spent about an hour there before getting back on the tram and completing the circuit. We then caught a city tour bus, also free, and went around different parts of the city and seeing other interesting sights. Both the tram and the bus were very crowded, the tram with locals and the bus with tourists of all different nationalities and cultures.

After we finished our two tours of the city we caught the shuttle back to the ship, had lunch and rested for a while before changing into formal duds and going back into Melbourne to the National Victoria Gallery for the annual World Cruise banquet. It was a very dramatic room and when we went into it we kind of caught our breath. There were 50 tables set out: in the center of the tables were very tall vases like we had at Rachel's wedding and they were filled with three dozen white roses, which were easily caught by the lights in the room. There was candlelight on the table, the candles being on a draped silvery cloth. The chairs were covered in white with silver sashes tied in the back. The astonishing thing was that this was set in a completely black room; black floor, black walls but the entire ceiling was like a stained-glass window. The menu was smoked salmon, a bread basket with lots of different breads, then filet mignon with mashed potatoes, green beans with some fancy sauce. The main course was followed by dessert served on long white dishes with three desserts on each plate. The first one was strawberries and blueberries; the second was chocolate mousse served inside a chocolate basket and the last was a small lemon-meringue pie with coffee or tea. Wine and champagne flowed freely during the entire meal. We were entertained by the Australian Boys Choir and they were outstanding, on a par with the Vienna Boys Choir. That sums up a very special evening. We departed some time after midnight sailing towards Adelaide. Today we are at sea, choppy but not too bad. Morag is doing a wash in the ship's entertainment center also known as the laundromat. I am sure we will have stories to tell you about that when we get home.

Sydney

2010-02-20T23:57:00.000-08:00

Well let's add Sydney to the list of places we think are wonderful and would be a good place to live. The streets are clean and wide, people are friendly, really nice buildings, and lots of green parks. There are great beaches within a 30 minute drive where you can have a family beach with shallow water and good for wading to beaches where the waves are big enough for good surfing. As we looked at some of the beaches, the first thing that struck us was that the people had very few things at the beach. They just sat on their towels, no deck chairs, no loud music, no cabanas or umbrellas. If they were hungry they only had to walk across the street to find all kinds of restaurants and outdoor cafes to get food or drink. We liked the relaxed attitude because it kept the beach clean. Now that we are beach experts we notice things like that. One good thing, NO ALCOHOL allowed on one of the most popular beaches around Sydney, Bondi Beach.

We arrived on Friday morning and as we were walking up to the Lido for breakfast we looked out the window and could see the Opera House. The harbor is deep and we could sail right into the Circular Quay, which is downtown Sydney. On the other side of the boat we could see an area called "The Rocks," which is where the first settlers came in and set up the penal colonies. On the Friday we took a city tour and were struck by how very pretty the city is. Then in the afternoon we took another tour on a city bus out to the beaches and to some of the suburbs and small towns. It was a lovely, warm day, not too hot and with the sunshine everything looked beautiful. When we got back to the quay we decided to take a walk over to the Opera house. If we could have walked on water it would have only been a few yards away but because we had to walk around the harbor it was about half a mile. After climbing 72 steps the place was locked and we could only look in. They were performing "Tosca" that night and we didn't have tickets to go so we did not get inside the building.

Saturday we had to be up early because we had to move rooms. We only had to pack up loose items, not the clothes that were on hangars. The cabin attendants moved everything for us but it was still a hassle to us when we got back that evening just to put things away. During the day we took a ferry to Manly, a suburb with a nice beach. We looked at a few shops, walked to the beach, and then came back to Sydney. We were only there for an hour. When we came back we walked through an open-air market near to the ship. That market was full of artisans and craftsmen who had made all sorts of items but mostly jewelry. We had lunch then took a walking tour of the area called "The Rocks" which was the area where the first prisoners settled. The tour guide was very enthusiastic and humorous and he loved Australia. He said he had over 6,000 books on Australian history in his own private library. Fortunately he said Australian history is only recent so they didn't have to do any guessing or surmising. So from its start as a penal colony to the present day all its history has been recorded. He was one of the best tour guides we have ever had. He was wonderful.

And so back to the ship because we had to unpack and set up our new stateroom. We are now on our way to Melbourne on the south coast of Australia.

Love to you all.

Mel and Morag

Wellington, NZ

2010-02-17T21:11:00.001-08:00

On Tuesday we arrived in Wellington on schedule. It was cloudy but not raining. By the time the day was over we had a very pleasant day. Wellington was our third stop in New Zealand and we still think it is very much like Scotland. In fact, one woman told Morag today in the laundry room that she had been visiting Scotland, but it was called New Zealand. We were met at the port by Patsy, who was the school friend of Morag's sister Rachel. Patsy left Scotland for NZ 54 years ago and Morag had not seen her since. As were walking through the parking lot on the quayside looking for someone, a car horn honked and a young woman came out of a car and hugged us. It was Jackie, Patsy's daughter who had come to meet us. Patsy was still in the car. So our adventure in Wellington began.

We first had a quick run around the center of Wellington and up to Mount Victoria, a lookout point from where we had a good view of Wellington, the harbor and the surrounding coastline. The place is beautiful. We then took a drive along the coast just playing tourist. From one of our lookout points we could barely make out the southern island where we had been the day before. We stopped for coffee and had a look around at several places, looking for souvenirs, etcetera. We had lunch at a nice restaurant overlooking the ocean and sitting on top of a big bluff. The ocean is everywhere in NZ: you are never more than 70 miles away from it. After lunch we went to Patsy's house where we met her other daughter and four grandchildren. We had a cup of tea and a blether and then too soon time had passed and it was time for us to return to the ship. It was a wonderful day and we never stopped talking about Scotland and times gone by.

Last night we went to a show after dinner, which was a talent show put on by some crew members. All the acts were musical and were very good. At the end we had to vote on which act we thought was the best. The winner is supposed to be announced tonight.

So now we are at sea and on our way to Sydney where we will spend two days. The weather in the Tasmanian Sea is stormy and wet. Hopefully it will be better in Sydney. It is still better than all the snow in Maryland.

Lyttleton/Christchurch

2010-02-16T18:40:00.001-08:00

On Monday we docked at Lyttleton, which is the port for Christchurch and is on the southern island of New Zealand. What a beautiful place but the sky was overcast and it was raining slightly. We started out on a bus for a very short journey, about five minutes, to the railway station where we boarded the Tranzalpine Express. We were traveling with a couple from England who are at the same table with us for dinner. The train ride was a steady climb up passing first through the city of Christchurch and along the Canterbury plain until we began a steeper climb up into the alps. After we got out of the built up areas the scenery improved greatly. The scenery was spectacular as we traveled along the alpine railway up and up. We passed gorges and mountain streams, crossed over tall bridges and went through several tunnels dug through the mountains. We were served coffee or tea in the morning and then a picnic lunch on board, which was quite good. We stopped at a settlement called Springfield and were given some time to look in at the local railway station and to buy souvenirs, if we we were so inclined. Then we got back on the train and continued our upward journey to a place called Arthur's Pass. There we got off the train and boarded a bus that was to take us back to Christchurch and to the ship.

Our bus driver, Bernard, was very informative and gave us a lot of the history of the area as he drove us over the pass and then down into another valley before turning back to Christchurch. There was a red tree that is native to New Zealand, can't remember the name, and it is in bloom so the whole mountainside was bright red. We took a lot of pictures but the autofocus on the camera had been switched off so all the photos were ruined. The driver explained all about the local flora and fauna and gave us the history of transportation before the railway was built and told us about the people who had built the roadway and maintained it. There were cabins along the highway that originally served as the home of the person who was responsible for maintaining a 20 mile section of roadway, ten miles to either side of his cabin. We think that must have been a lonely job.

After we returned to the Canterbury plane, we were taken to a sheep farm where we were given a demonstration of a sheep dog at work. I thought it was funny that a couple of the sheep were not at all scared of the dog and even came out of the pack and challenged him but they went back into the pack after a short confrontation. Anyway, once the sheep were rounded up the local sheep farmer explained how the sheep were marked and how he chose which sheep were kept for breeding and which ones were sent away to be used for food. Lambs are generally slaughtered at about six months of age. When ewes give birth to twins, usually the twin lambs are kept for breeding and the ewes that give birth to twins are kept for another year. Ewes are usually kept for about five years, after which their teeth are worn down to where they don't graze well so they are sent off to the slaughter houses. Twin lambs are kept for breeding usually with single ones being sent to become lamb chops. Also most of the male lambs become part of the dinner table. We had such a good lecture that we feel qualified to start sheep herding.

After the sheep-dog demonstration, the farmer explained sheep shearing to us and sheared a sheep. He also explained how the wool was separated and how lanolin was extracted from the wool. This, too was interesting. And of course there was the inevitable souvenir shop. We followed this with "tea" in a farm house. It consisted of a good cup of tea and a couple of home made cookies. That was it.

So, we were brought home with a roundabout tour of Christchurch as we headed back to the ship. The city reminded us so much of an English town with a cathedral square, a river running through it where one could go punting or for a boat ride. The landscaping even looked English. We returned back to the ship just in time to sail away.

First day in New Zealand

2010-02-13T22:51:00.001-08:00

Saturday the 13th of February saw us in Auckland, New Zealand. This was the first time in NZ for either of us. Our ship docked early and we were off the ship by 0830. We started to look for our friends Arthur and Jean Frampton from Harrogate. They moved out here 13 years ago from England. They with their daughter Jenny met us at the pier and we never stopped talking until they brought us back to the ship in the evening. We had such a happy, fun time together and they were very enthusiastic and informative about their new country. First thing we noticed was they had an English car, a Land Rover which they brought with them from the U.K. It had been his company car and they gave it to him on his retirement. They shipped it along with their furniture in a container. It now has a quarter of a million miles on it and still going strong. We started out in the direction of their home but took a circuitous route through Auckland so we could see some of their neighborhoods. They drove us along the coast and we were amazed at the amount of sailing boats there were as well as kayaks and some powered craft. There was a path along the shore with people walking and jogging as well as cycling. They really are people who love the outdoors. The weather was mild and windy. The first place we stopped was a little town on the way out to their house called Howick. It was just like a little town in England with shops, coffee bars and tea rooms. People were coming and going and just seemed to be enjoying themselves. We stopped at a market, a kiwi shop (That's NZ for a souvenir shop), an old church, had a cup of coffee and then we were back on the road.

The Framptons live in a little village that's about a mile form the beach but is also tucked into a hillside in the country. They had a house built there on some acreage but didn't want to cut the grass so they bought four calves. A certificate from the government classifies them as "Hobby farmers." They knew nothing about keeping calves so Arthur went to the local auction market and started talking to the farmers about what he should do. They are thoroughly enjoying these calves. They keep them for two years then sell them and start with four new ones. The countryside around their house looks just like Scotland, especially in the Borders area. Arthur was the chemist with Terry's Chocolates and since coming to NZ he has worked as a consultant with several companies. He could be busy all the time but he doesn't want to be.

They have adjusted well to their new country, have made friends, go to a good church and their son and his family live on the southern island. Jean prepared a lovely meal for us which we enjoyed and after talking a while we started our return trip to the ship. We stopped at a couple of places including an extinct volcano and were back ship by 6:30. Our impression of Auckland was beautiful country, friendly people, lovely trees and a good lifestyle. In fact we were almost tempted to jump ship. We had such a good time but it was made "gooder" by the fact that the Framptons met us and could tell us about the politics, the schools and just life in NZ in general. It was so interesting for us.

When we got back to the ship and were eating dinner, the other two couples that share our table with us were equally impressed with the country side, the people and just how grand it was to be in New Zealand. We are eager to get to Christchurch and see how life on the Southern island is. We have been at sea today, very pleasant and relaxing. We get to Lyttleton, Christchurch early tomorrow morning.

Wednesday in Fiji

2010-02-10T21:51:00.000-08:00

What a wonderful day we had yesterday in Fiji in the South Pacific. The weather was in the 90s and very humid but to our surprise we had an air-conditioned bus. The bus was absolutely crowded, probably 60 people. So we drove through part of the island and we had a great tour director dressed in a typical fijian skirt. He gave us a good lecture on topology and the politics and education system of his country. It was all very interesting to us. Fiji is made up of 50 percent Fijians and 45 percent Indians with the remaining five percent as all others. We drove to a little settlement and the whole village, it looked like, turned out to greet us. The village chief, along with all the people, had a welcome ceremony with speeches and kava-drinking. The natives were all dressed in their native costumes, the ladies in long colorful dresses and the men in grass skirts. We were all given a lei to hang around our necks. They sang for us, played their local instruments and danced for us. They even got Mel up to dance. Morag couldn't believe it and took a lot of pictures. I never did get the beat of the dance. We were told no one could wear hats, that it was an offense to their culture and we were cautioned not to touch the hair of the children since that was also very offensive to them. That seemed a bit funny to us, since Fiji was a one-time cannibal society but now you can't touch the hair of their children. The ceremony lasted for over an hour. I must say we really enjoyed the ceremony, especially the singing. They had souvenirs to buy but we didn't find the people pushy or hanging around with their hands out trying to force you to buy anything.

Next stop was the orchid farm. We were told the woman that was in charge of the orchid farm was trying to get the poor people of Fiji to grow orchids for resale since the unemployment rate is about 25 percent. When we got to the farm we were served coffee, tea or cold drinks with sandwiches and cakes and we sat around on the patio. We didn't even know we needed a repast but it was good. We have to say nothing particularly funny happens with these old folks that causes us to laugh but sometimes we sit beside some interesting people. Morag was sitting beside a farmer from the east of England who told her that during WWII one of the rockets from Germany fell on his farm and killed some of his sows. He gathered up the pieces and stored them in his barn. Then about ten years ago he and his brother took the pieces out and reassembled the missile and contacted someone from Germany who came and looked at the weapon then took it back to Germany where it is in a museum. He says he has a yearly reunion with the person who came to see the missile.

After the snack and a lecture on orchids we were invited up to the house of the owner of this farm. We were ushered into his living room, the largest living room you would ever expect to see. We all 60 had a seat and there was still room for others. It turned out he was a descendant of Scottish immigrants and his house was full of antiques, the actual furniture his great grandparents had brought to Fiji on a sailing ship. He spent about 30 minutes showing us some of the things and telling us the history of it. It was fantastic. He seemed like a gentle old man. It was funny to walk into a house in Fiji and see two portraits of Rabbie Burns hanging on the wall. He had three huge baskets of soap just lying around like you would find in a soap shop and they smelled lovely. Morag thought they were for sale and she tried to buy a bar, because she thought that was the thing to do since he had shown us his house. "Oh," he said, "They're not for sale, they're mine."

So back to the bus and we drove to a town called Nadi. They took us to a souvenir shop where a band was there to greet us. The shop attendants came around offering us cold drinks as we were shopping. We think this is a rather civilized way to shop. There didn't seem to be any real pressure to buy when shopping and no one followed us around like often happens. When we left they all came out and waved to us as we pulled away on the bus. Morag thought that the little town of Nadi was a picture of how Alexander McCall Smith described his small towns in Botswana, very different from what we are used to, but we thought this was really a nice place.

We found the Fijian people to be extremely hospitable. We were greeted by the police band when we landed and they played for about an hour as we were ready to set sail. They also did a precision marching demonstration on the quay while lots of people watched from the decks of the ship. It was a nice way to end a good. The ship sounded her whistle to signify our leaving and the band responded with long blasts of the horns as well in saying good bye. And so on we sail: next stop Auckland, New Zealand.

Sunday

2010-02-07T21:10:00.000-08:00

Sunday, 7 February in American Samoa

Greetings from Pago Pago (pronounced pango pango) in American Samoa. We had a nice day. The weather was good but hot and humid. We took a tour of the island. The buses were ancient school buses painted outside in wild colors and decorated with real flowers. The inside of the bus had wooden bench seats, wooden floor and wood even on the ceiling. There were no windows but some plexiglass halfway up where windows should be. Needless to say there was no air conditioning and they were uncomfortable to say the least. (It's amazing that we spent money on such an uncomfortable ride.)

What is our impression of American Samoa? It is like a rainforest all over the island and when you come into the harbor you face a sheer cliff which is covered in jungle. The tour we took was to see village life in Pago Pago and sure enough we drove through lots of villages. The houses were built of cinder blocks with corrugated iron roofs. There were lots of flowers growing wild but the little villages were poor looking with fairly unattractive shops. We did notice that the island was full of churches and there were a lot of billboards warning youth against drinking, which we assume must be a problem on the island. The tour guide told us that there was a 6:30 curfew in the villages on Sunday evening and no one is allowed out after that. The idea is that the family gets together for evening prayers and then the youngsters can get to bed early for school on Monday. We finally drove up to a village in the hills and they had little set ups of village life as it must have been or maybe still is in some areas. They showed us how they cooked outside over a stone fire with the food wrapped in banana leaves. They also showed us things like how they roast the cocoa beans, how they do their washing etcetera. The cocoa, which is their national drink was delicious. They put on a dancing exhibition for us which was interesting. One guy climbed up a tree to get a coconut and showed us how getting the milk out of a coconut was done. To sum it all up, they were very hospitable and it was interesting to see what village life was really like.

Our tour guide, a high-school senior sang us a couple of songs in Samoan and English. We enjoyed her singing to us. It was rather sweet.

We weren't sorry to return to the ship after riding over the bumpy roads on this school bus. We are supposed to finish up the day with a barbecue on the top deck but they had to move it inside because of the rain. We have no Monday this week because we cross the International Date Line about 11:00 tonight which will put us into Tuesday an hour later. So, that's Monday gone. Never mind! We will make it up on the way home. That about sums up American Samoa. Next stop is Lautoka in Fiji.

Friday at sea

2010-02-05T21:07:00.001-08:00

Since we last created a blog we have been on the sea sailing in a south-southwesterly direction. It has turned tropically hot and very humid. When we walk outside the air-conditioned portion of the ship we are hit by a tropical blast that feels like a sauna. For those of you in MD, I think you would enjoy this weather rather than the huge snowfall you are having.

Today about 11:00 our time, 5:00 PM eastern standard time we crossed the equator. There was a big ceremony at the outdoor pool with King Neptune and all his crew. You are called a pollywog if you have not crossed the equator and a shellback once you have done so. The ceremony on a passenger ship is a lot tamer than it would be on a freighter or a naval ship. We watched the ceremony for about an hour but it was so hot we gave up and went inside. Besides we wanted to hear one of the lectures given by a retired British major general who had been in Berlin several times. I had a chance to talk with him and we know some of the same people,.

After the lecture it was lunch and then Morag went to the laundry room to do some laundry while Mel sat on the deck and watched the waves flow by. I think we have one more day at sea before we get to Pago Pago. We are looking forward to our trip ashore there. Next blog will probably be after our stop there.

For those of you in MD, hope you enjoy the snow storm. For those of you who were in Berlin with us, I found out today that Gene Bird passed away in 2005. We didn't hear anything about Donna. The general who was speaking did not know anything about her.

Hawaii

2010-02-03T20:56:00.001-08:00

Wednesday, 3 February

Well, Hawaii is behind us and we have been remiss in keeping you up to date. Truth is we were so busy on Maui and in Honolulu that we were just too tired to sit down and write up our blog.

We had a great time on Maui. We got up promptly that morning so we would be ready to get an early tender to the shore. While we were having breakfast, we were surprised to see so many whales. The ship nearly tilted with all the people watching. Three came right up alongside the ship, we guess mother, father and baby. They really put on a show for us, spouting, porpoising and flipping with their tails coming out of the water and slapping down. Because of the whales being so close to the ship and in the waters nearby, the tenders could not leave right away. We were in the first group to get off the ship and went to the harbor and met Carol Beydler, her sister Mary and brother-in-law Norman who came into the same harbor we were in but about 20 minutes after us. Carol had hired a car and Norman drove us all over the Island. Maui is absolutely beautiful, especially with all the flowering bushes. It was hot and sunny and we could not have had a better time if we had planned it. It was nice at the end of a lovely day, sitting in the harbor, eating onion rings, having a drink, and just watching the people while we were waiting for our tender back to the ship. Maui is famous for onion rings. Carol and family had bought groceries to take back to their small island, Lanai, because there are no real grocery stores on the island. It was interesting to see all the people that had done the same carrying all their purchases on the ferry back to their island of residence. Thanks, Carol, for such a nice day. We really enjoyed it.

We sailed overnight and woke up the next morning in Honolulu. This is surely a nice way to see the world. While having breakfast we could see Diamond Head and the downtown area. Our ship docked alongside the Aloha tower so we could walk right off the ship into the city We took out our phone to call Sherry and Terry Tankersly and before I could dial they were calling us. Did we forget to tell you that it was absolutely pouring in Honolulu. The rain was heavy and the island was covered with clouds, which hid the mountains from us. When we got to Pearl Harbor Sherry ran and bought us ponchos so we could be protected from the rain. We could not get out to the Arizona because they were working on the docks, but we did get to see a documentary on the Pearl Harbor attack and wander around the museum area. We did see the Arizona memorial from the shore but were disappointed that we could not get out to it. We still enjoyed being there despite the rain and other difficulties.

Terry and Sherry treated us well by driving us around to places like the Punch Bowl and we ended up having lunch at the American military hotel on Waikiki beach. After lunch the rain stopped and the sun came out, so everything was much better. We drove along the coast and saw the ocean, surfers and kite surfers, whales, and some beautiful areas. Once again we were struck by the beauty and variety of the flowers and bushes and we also saw white pigeons. All the flora and fauna were so interesting to us. Again, Sherry and Terry treated us well and showed us many interesting sights in beautiful Hawaii. They have learned a lot about the island in such a short period of time. Thanks Sherry and Terry for showing us such a good time. After comparing our day with others on the ship, we think we had the best day of all.

Today they had a boat race in the deck swimming pool. People had made boats from things on the ship and they had to float from one end of the swimming pool to the other. The entries were graded on design, seaworthiness, and cargo carrying ability. I think those who participated had a good time. One ship was made by two little boys, but it didn't make it past the first seaworthiness test but they took it well. They lost part of their cargo as soon as their entry hit the water. Too bad.

So aloha. Now we are on a four-day sail to Pago Pago in American Samoa and will blog again after we have been there.

San Francisco

2010-01-28T15:33:00.001-08:00

Thursday 28 January:

There has been a lot of water passed under the keel since we last wrote. After we left Mexico to sail farther north it began to get colder. We sailed through the outer fringe of a storm which made the cruising a bit rough for a day or so. As a result of that we have not been sitting outside very much. Tuesday and Wednesday were spent at sea, sailing at full speed for San Francisco, thus we have not done any blog updates.

Thursday morning we got up early because we wanted to see the Golden Gate Bridge from the sea. We sailed under the bridge at 6:45 and it was too dark for us to see much. The bridge was lighted and we could see the traffic going across on it. It was cold so we watched the bridge from inside. We were at the pier in San Francisco about 7:30 but had to wait until after 11:30 before we could go ashore because everyone had to clear immigration before anyone could get off the ship. There were a couple of stragglers who did not go to immigration right away and had to be called several times so we had to wait until they cleared, thus delaying everyone. We only had about an hour to take in Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39 because we had to be back at the ship before 1:00 to catch our tour bus. We went to nearby Muir Woods, dedicated to a man who came from Dunbar, Scotland, to see the giant redwoods. Along the way we had to drive over the Golden Gate Bridge and saw some very beautiful scenery. We had a good tour director who gave us lots of local stories and this made it very interesting for us. We drove through some countryside that Morag thought reminded her of the Scottish landscape, lots of rolling hills with short valleys in between. The giant redwoods were magnificent. It was so quiet as we walked through the forest. We had to stick to the path and were not allowed to get off so we would not damage the ecology. It was one of the most awe inspiring things we had ever seen. The guide said it was the only living National Monument and was the third most popular National Monument in number of visitors: the first is the Statue of Liberty and the second is Mount Rushmore. It was very cold and damp, much like Scotland in January but it didn't rain on us and the guide said it was the first day without rain in San Francisco in two and a half weeks. There was an amazing amount of flowers in the gardens and even some wild flowers int he fields. It must be the right climate for this kind of plant life. We even saw some purple heather on the sides of the hills.

After the Muir Woods we drove to Sausalito, an artist colony and a very popular tidal basin for yachts. We thought it was a charming little town and we would have liked to spend more time there. We only had about an hour. As we drove through San Francisco our guide pointed out some very interesting places and we found the city to be very clean. We would like to return some day and spend some time just enjoying the city. The architecture of the city is a real mixture of art deco, victorian, and modern and rather unique.

So back to the ship where it was nice and warm and now we're sailing in a southwesterly direction towards Hawaii. If anybody reading this would like to send us an email we would like to hear from you. Please email to Mel's verizon address, mmsurguine@verizon.net.

Today we went to three lectures on the ship. The first was on Hawaiian history especially explaining how Hawaii became a state. The lecturer was very knowledgeable and interesting. We learned a lot about the history of the island group which actually reaches as far west as Midway. The second lecture was by a journalist from Britain who told us how the press and politics interacted and influenced each other. He was a good lecture and kept us interested. The third was by the oceanography professor and was about whales. He had recordings of sounds made by whales and dolphins. We have enjoyed his lectures as we go along.

That just about brings everybody up to date. We have just finished listening to a classical concert in the Queens Room. So we continue on our journey, enjoying the activities, the food, and the people we meet.

Acapulco

2010-01-24T17:47:00.001-08:00

Saturday 23 and Sunday 24 January:

We had been cruising for three days before we arrived in Acapulco. It took two days hard steaming (they don't really steam any more but steaming sounds better than dieseling) from the Panama canal to Acapulco. It was very pleasant on the ship and we enjoyed just relaxing, reading and watching the wildlife that we saw in the water. There were some interesting birds, rust in color but with white and black breasts.They followed the ship for a long time. When the bridge would spot wildlife they would alert the passengers and we did get to see some small dolphins and the occasional sailfish as well as the birds. There reports of a whale but we did not see it.

Saturday morning we arrived in the Acapulco harbor about an hour late. Since there were already three other cruise ships in the harbor we did not have a berth so we had to go onshore by tender. Acapulco was not as nice as Cartagena but we still enjoyed the day. We had booked a tour called Amazing Acapulco which included a tour of the sights around the city and a visit to the famous cliffs where the divers would jump into the water from high up the cliffs, up to 1156 feet. The city was in a beautiful setting with a natural harbor and surrounded by mountains. Our drive took us up one side of the city where our tour guide showed us where the rich and famous live. Funny, it was the same names that we heard in Grand Cayman, i.e. Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, Sylvester Stallone and lots of older luminaries like Bogard, Hedy Lamar, etc. We went to the famous Black Lagoon where a lot of water scenes were filmed especially in the older Tarzan movies with Johnny Weismuller. Our tour guide was humorous and very good. He told us many interesting stories of how Acapulco became famous as a vacation area for the Hollywood and political crowds.

The last stop on our tour was to view the cliff divers. The youngest of the divers was seven years old and they dove from different ranges of heights, the highest was from 115 feet. They dive from greater heights as they get more experience and lose their fright of the heights. The water is from 12 to 16 feet deep and they had to judge the waves so they would land when the small basin was fullest. The divers all belong to one family and there are several groups of them so some would see different divers. In the group we saw there was one girl who is a young teenager. After the divers there was a small show with locals dressed in native costumes and doing a local dance. When we left the area the divers were lined up with a plastic bag for tips. They seemed to do quite well.

That being our last stop we were dropped off at the quay to catch our tender back to the ship. The quay had several shops where you could buy local crafts, etc. We got back to the ship about 3:00 in the afternoon, had a lunch and rested the rest of the day.

Today is Sunday and we went to church. The service is led by the captain and is a generic service. Our usual routine on days when we are not in port is we walk around the promenade deck for about 45 minutes. Today is a very blustery day and was quite windy so we did not sit out on deck for very long. Now we are in our cabin getting ready to go down for dinner.

We hope you all had a nice Sunday and we sail on. Next stop, San Francisco.

Panama Canal report:

2010-01-21T06:50:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, January 20th we spent transiting the Panama canal. It was very hot and humid so we chose to view the crossing from an air-conditioned glassed-in lounge rather than on deck. We were sitting right in front so we had a good view. For the transit the ship opened some deck area that is normally only accessible to the crew. Actually there were so many people looking out you would think the ship would have tipped over. We had to be up really early so we could see the entrance into the canal. We arrived at the first lock about 0630 but didn't enter until about 0800. In front of us was the Norwegian Star so we got a picture of what we must have looked like entering the canal. There was about two feet clearance on each side of the ship but it looked to us like we were scraping the sides. It was amazing and also amazing to see locks fill up and raise the ship. There were three chambers together on the Atlantic side and then one chamber on the Pacific at first and then later two more. We saw the mules and how they guided the ship through the locks. The ship moved under her own propulsion: the mules were just there to make sure the ship did not scrape the sides and bump the end of the chamber. There were steel cables attached to the mules and the ship to keep us straight and from going too far to either side. It is a tremendous feat of engineering and we were amazed at how the workers were able to survive under those conditions of high heat and humidity. We were also unaware that the Panama Canal is actually slightly east of Florida and runs north to south instead of east to west. It was a beautiful sail because we got to see some of the rain forest and little islands in the canal lakes. It was basically a very nice day but it took us almost twelve hours to get through the canal. We are now in the Pacific Ocean west of Costa Rica. We don't remember the exact amount but it cost over 390 thousand dollars in toll to transit the canal.

While sitting up in the lounge there were lots of people and we got to talk to each other. It was a very pleasant day. We will be at sea until Saturday, so we will write another blog after we have been to Acapulco.

CARTAGENA

2010-01-20T16:18:00.001-08:00

Tuesday 19 January

To start with, here is a photo from Cartagena, Colombia.

I expect this will be one of the biggest surprises to us on our trip. We signed up for a walking tour of the old city of Cartagena. Cartagena is in Colombia, South America, and it was our first time to be on this continent. I think we expected to see a city filled with slums and dirty but it was the opposite. The city was founded in 1533 and because of many pirate attacks they used slave labor to fortify it by building a wall around it. This fortification is the largest in all South America with a wall that is six to fifty feet thick.

Anyway, back to us being surprised. Inside these walls was a beautiful old preserved city with lovely painted buildings. It had many trees so it was shaded and had wonderful bright flowers. The national flower is the orchid. We absolutely loved the city. Everything was very colorful; the flowers, the trees, the buildings and the people, especially the women in their native costumes. It just made you feel good because everyone seemed to be so cheerful and happy.

Colombia has the biggest emerald mines in the world but we didn't buy any emeralds, just like we didn't buy any diamonds in the Cayman Islands. It was very hot and after two hours of walking we were quite tired. When we came back to the ship we took a little walk around the docks then came back on board. That about concludes our first visit to South America.

Here are a few statistics about the ship that we think you might enjoy. During this 15-day segment, New York to San Francisco, the Queen victoria will consume 70 tons of fruit and vegetables; 18 tons of meat; 12 tons of poultry; 20 tons of fish and seafood; 20 tons of cheese and dairy; 67,850 pints of milk; 4,666 dozen eggs; 8 tons of flour; 3 tons of rice; 1,680 pizzas; 11,200 scones; 70,000 cups of tea; 4,000 pints of beer; 8,750 bottles of beer/cider; 1,400 bottles of wine; 530 bottles of champagne.

Another day on a grueling cruise.

2010-01-18T15:17:00.000-08:00

Sunday 20 and Monday 21 January:

Sunday morning we anchored offshore at Grand Cayman and took a tender to the harbor. it was only about a five-minute ride. They have that down pat. It went very smoothly. Standing at the harbor were people offering tours of the island and we took one of them. It was a bit of a bust because there is not really a whole lot to see on the island. it's really geared for snorkeling and swimming with the stingrays.

We did get to see where the rich and famous live, such as Oprah, Tom Cruise, Chuck Norris, Brad Pitt, etc. It's a little out of our price range. We saw some beaches but it was no great shakes. Anyway, the most interesting thing for Morag was that the tour lady was in her fifties and looked like she had been round the block a few times. She said we would have to stop and pick up her husband. In the car jumps this 24-year old, long ponytailed, suntanned young man. Yeah, Husband!

We shopped around at the stores but it was filled with jewelry stores selling diamonds and since we didn't need anything like that we came back to the ship and didn't spend a penny except the price of the tour. That was Grand Cayman. it was very hot so it was nice to come back to an air-conditioned ship.

About the virus: Two people at our table have been stricken with the virus and they told us that the doctor has to come to your cabin; they wash down the cabin with special people and special cleaners. The regular cleaners are not allowed in and people come in with HAZMAT gear to clean the place. They took the laundry and washed it in a special solution and then came in and fumigated the room after the patient had gotten better. The cleaners are constantly wiping down the banisters with antiviral cleaner and we saw people wiping down the sides of the ship with what we assumed was also antiviral cleaner. It would be nice to have this over with. It might make it a little easier for the ships crew if they didn't have this to contend with. They have to work so hard.

Actually these blogs are a bit tedious because there's nothing funny. We haven't run into any funny situations to write about so we'll have to make something up. I suppose we could describe the old women in their bikinis and the old men in the speedos. That ought to make your day if you can picture that. And so we sail on.

Another story for you

2010-01-16T19:55:00.000-08:00

What we forgot to say:

Two of our table of eight have come down with the virus; the husband of one and the wife of another. This requires 48 hour quarantine after the virus is diagnosed. One of them will be off quarantine tomorrow (Sunday).

Our table was set up for eight and it will be the same eight until we reach San Francisco. It is comprised of a scientist and his wife, two lawyers who are married to each other (from New York) and another lawyer (Mark) from Bethesda and his wife. Mark's brother joined the cruise in Ft. Lauderdale and since our table is only for eight, Mark and his wife had to be moved to another table so he could be with his brother. His specialty was international law and he regaled us with great stories so we will miss him. His replacement came to the table last night. Of this couple, the man, Harry looks very old and by his side was this very attractive, very attentive young wife who was dressed in the latest fashions and wearing lots of jewelry; diamonds on the neck, the arms and the fingers. So, Morag thinks, "What a trophy wife he has." He has Parkinson's so the wife, Georgie, does the talking for him. She is very tall and slim and just looks like a model. The women at the table thought she looked in her forties: the men thought fifties, so we were all quite wary of this young, beautiful woman. They live in Canada, have a horse farm in Canada but he's a gentleman farmer; a condo in Florida, a place in Israel and travel for three months of the year. Anyway, to make this long story short and not so boring, during the course of the conversation over dinner with this couple, it turned out they have been married for 50 years; she is the mother of six children; and will be 70 in a few months. That surely stopped some of the racing thoughts of the women in the group. Maybe in our next blog we can send a photo. They weren't there this evening, so the rest of the table freely gave their thoughts and we all had had the same opinion. My were we shocked.

Friday and Saturday

2010-01-16T15:21:00.001-08:00

Friday January 15 and Saturday 16th.

ON Friday we met up with Roger and Shirley Davis our old friends from Laurel, MD, on a bright, sunny Florida day. They met us at the terminal when we came off the ship. it was good to be with old friends and get caught up with each other. We spent the day together shopping, eating, talking, just enjoying being in Fort Lauderdale. There's something special about meeting up with old friends and sharing past experiences as well as getting caught up with things as they are now. The Davis's are very content with their decision to move to Florida eight years ago. They have good friends and are enjoying their retirement. The time passed too quickly for us and it was time to return to the ship.

Saturday was a leisurely day and it is getting warm now. It was lovely to sit out on the decks and read books and just relax. it seems like the Novovirus is abating somewhat because they have opened up the swimming pools and the buffet. Guests are still not allowed to help themselves to buffet food and are served by members of the staff. There was a surprise inspection yesterday by the Public Health Service and the ship got a perfect score. It will just take a while for the virus to run its course. The crew continue to wipe down everything with disinfectant after use and just a s a matter of routine. Tomorrow we are off to Grand Cayman for a few hours. This will be the first time there for us and we are quite excited about the upcoming adventure. A lot of the people are going snorkeling and swimming with the stingrays. You can imagine we will not be on that tour. We will just take a leisurely walk around the town. Everything seems to be within sight of the place where our tender will land.

2010-01-14T14:56:00.000-08:00

Thursday 14 January

We spent the day on board ship. We went to two lectures this morning. The first was an oceanographer from University of MD who presented an interesting discourse on coral and other life found around coral reefs, especially in the Caribbean and in the Pacific along our projected route. The second lecture was on Fort Lauderdale and the surrounding area and we had a difficult time staying awake. The rest of the day was leisure, just hanging around the deck and reading. Sorry there's no more news.

The Journey Begins

2010-01-11T21:18:00.000-08:00

It is Monday night or actually 1215 Tuesday morning on the day we are to start our journey. We leave our house about 0800 to go to New York's Manhattan Cruise Terminal to begin our 50th Anniversary Celebration World Cruise. We will be sending emails from time to time to tell you to check our blog. I hope this works out for everyone. Please do not reply to blogs until after we have returned because the internet connection from the ship is slow and expensive to use. See you all in May.